Orthodox Priest is blamed for the unsuccessful launch of Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket

Responsibility for the unsuccessful launch of the Soyuz-2.1b from Vostochny cosmodrome lies on bishop Lukian, who blessed the rocket before the launch, says protodeacon Andrei Kuraev.

“It is very strange that the church seems to provide services, but it’s never responsible for the quality of these services.”, – quotes Kuraev’s words “Govorit Moskva” radio station.

On November 28th 2017, Russian weather satellite failed to enter orbit after launch. Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said it has failed to establish communications with the Meteor M 2-1 satellite that was launched atop a Soyuz-2 booster rocket Tuesday from Russia’s new Vostochny launch pad in the Far East. The agency says it’s trying to determine what happened. Russian news agencies reported the likely cause was the failure of the booster’s final stage, the Fregat, possibly caused by a software flaw.

The booster also carried 18 micro satellites built in Canada, Germany, Japan, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.

The international payload of satellites launched from Russia’s new cosmodrome has failed to reach orbit and is feared lost in the ocean.